{"id":18483,"date":"2023-09-30T02:44:25","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T07:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18483"},"modified":"2023-09-30T02:44:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T07:44:30","slug":"last-living-suspect-in-1996-drive-by-shooting-of-tupac-shakur-indicted-in-las-vegas-on-murder-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18483","title":{"rendered":"Last living suspect in 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur indicted in Las Vegas on murder charge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 A man who prosecutors say ordered the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur<\/u><\/a> was arrested and charged with murder Friday in a long-awaited breakthrough in one of hip-hop\u2019s most enduring mysteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duane \u201cKeffe D\u201d Davis has long been known to investigators as one of four suspects identified early in the investigation. He isn\u2019t the accused gunman but was described as the group\u2019s ringleader by authorities Friday at a news conference and in court. In Nevada you can be charged with a crime, including murder, if you help someone commit the crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuane Davis was the shot caller for this group of individuals that committed this crime,\u201d said Las Vegas police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson, \u201cand he orchestrated the plan that was carried out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davis himself has admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, \u201cCompton Street Legend,\u201d that he provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities said Friday that Davis\u2019 own public comments revived the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Davis, now 60, was arrested early Friday while on a walk near his home on the outskirts of Las Vegas, hours before prosecutors announced in court that a Nevada grand jury had indicted the self-described \u201cgangster\u201d on one count of murder with a deadly weapon. He is due in court next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grand jury also voted to add a sentencing enhancement to the murder charge for gang activity that could add up to 20 additional years if he\u2019s convicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of pages of transcripts released Friday provide a view into the first month of grand jury proceedings, which began in late July with testimony from former associates of Davis, friends of Shakur and a slate of retired police officers involved in the case early on. Their testimony painted a picture for the jurors of a deep, escalating rift between Shakur\u2019s music label Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records, which had ties to Davis and represented Shakur\u2019s rap rival, Biggie Smalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt started the whole West Coast\/East Coast\u201d rivalry that primarily defined the hip-hop scene during the mid-1990s, one of Davis\u2019 former associates testified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first-ever arrest in the case came after Las Vegas police in mid-July raided Davis\u2019 home<\/u><\/a> in the nearby city of Henderson for items they described at the time as \u201cconcerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davis denied an interview request Friday from jail, and court records don\u2019t list an attorney who can comment on his behalf. Phone and text messages to Davis and his wife on Friday and in the months since the July 17 search weren\u2019t returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement Friday, Sekyiwa \u201cSet\u201d Shakur, the rapper\u2019s sister, described the arrest as a victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is no doubt a pivotal moment. The silence of the past 27 years surrounding this case has spoken loudly in our community,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to me that the world, the country, the justice system, and our people acknowledge the gravity of the passing of this man, my brother, my mother\u2019s son, my father\u2019s son.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion \u201cSuge\u201d Knight. They were waiting at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later at the age of 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davis, in his memoir, said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had slipped a gun into the back seat, from where he said the shots were fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He implicated his nephew, Orlando \u201cBaby Lane\u201d Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the backseat. Anderson, a known rival of Shakur, had been involved in a casino brawl with the rapper shortly before the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLittle did anyone know that this incident right here would ultimately lead to the retaliatory shooting and death of Tupac Shakur,\u201d said Johansson, the police lieutenant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anderson died two years later. He denied any involvement in Shakur\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emails seeking comment from two lawyers who have previously represented Knight were not immediately returned. Knight was grazed by a bullet fragment in the shooting but had only minor injuries. He is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for an unrelated voluntary manslaughter charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the night of July 17, Las Vegas police quietly surrounded the home where Davis lives with his wife, Paula Clemons. Police lapel video obtained by The Associated Press showed SWAT officers detaining a man and his wife outside the home lit up by a swirl of red and blue lights after announcing their presence on a bullhorn. The couple\u2019s faces are blurred in the videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police reported collecting multiple computers, a cellphone and hard drive, a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, several .40-caliber bullets, two \u201ctubs containing photographs\u201d and a copy of Davis\u2019 memoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective who spent years investigating the Shakur killing and wrote a book about it, said he\u2019s not surprised by Davis\u2019 arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe put himself squarely in the middle of the conspiracy,\u201d Kading said, adding that Davis himself gave Las Vegas police \u201cthe ammunition and leverage to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kading said he had also anticipated the murder charge, because Davis\u2019 public comments showed the crime was premeditated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the other direct conspirators or participants are all dead,\u201d Kading said. \u201cKeefe D is the last man standing among the individuals that conspired to kill Tupac.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rapper\u2019s death came as his fourth solo album, \u201cAll Eyez on Me,\u201d remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies sold. Nominated six times for a Grammy Award,<\/u><\/a> Shakur is still largely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

apnews<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 A man who prosecutors say ordered the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur was arrested and charged with murder Friday in a long-awaited breakthrough in one of hip-hop\u2019s most enduring mysteries. Duane \u201cKeffe D\u201d Davis has long been known to investigators as one of four suspects identified early in the investigation. He isn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[22903,9054,22902,4639,1303],"class_list":["post-18483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-1996-tupac-shakur","tag-charged-with-murder","tag-drive-by-shooting","tag-las-vegas","tag-suspect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18485,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18483\/revisions\/18485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}